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Gallatin Holiday Inn Express project delayed

A rendering of the proposed four-story, 85-room Holiday Inn Express & Suites hotel planned at the corner of Nashville Pike and Davis Drive in Gallatin.(Photo: Courtesy of the Gallatin Planning Department)

A proposed four-story Holiday Inn Express and Suites in Gallatin will not be voted on by city leaders this year.

At the request of the developer, the Gallatin Planning Commission deferred a vote Tuesday on the preliminary master development plan and rezoning request for the project until January. If approved, the plan would allow for the construction of the 85-room hotel on 1.7 acres at the corner of Davis Drive and Nashville Pike across from Walmart.

The city’s planning department did not recommended approval of the project and has found it would be incompatible with the surrounding area and would “create adverse effects upon adjoining property owners” if implemented, according to a staff report dated Nov. 17.

“I have read the report and I think there are items that can be improved on,” said Bruce Rainey, who became a consultant on the project Tuesday. “I would like to meet with some of the neighbors and try to come up with something a little more palatable.”

Residents of the nearby Payne Estates subdivision submitted a petition to the city with 23 signatures opposing the hotel.

“Progress is wonderful, but sometimes progress can become encroachment and that is what we feel like is happening to us,” said resident Bettye Finch Anderson. “We’re going to have water problems, we’re going to have traffic problems and we in the neighborhood are going to have our homes devalued.”

Several members of the planning commission expressed concerns earlier this month about the impact the proposed development would have on the surrounding area.

“It’s just too intense for this spot,” Commissioner James Robert Ramsey said Nov. 7.

Following a recommendation from the planning commission, the project would have to pass two votes by the Gallatin City Council before it could be approved. A public hearing must also be held.

Construction on the hotel could begin within three months of approval and would take about one year to complete, developer Jeff Lamont said last month.

140-unit mixed use development gets initial nod

In other business, planning commissioners recommended approval of Preston Park, a mixed-use development with 140 residential units and commercial space at the corner of North Martin Vineyard Way and Tulip Poplar Drive.

The plan, which must still pass two readings of the Gallatin City Council, would allow for 76 townhomes, 64 stacked flats and five commercial outparcels to be built on the property previously planned for a Home Depot store.

The project would be located next to the already approved Bakers Crossing development, which includes plans for two four-story hotels each with 99 rooms along with a conference center and retail, office and restaurant space.